Between Folds / Ordres D'architecture

Following in the footsteps of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who wrote his book on the five orders in 1562, Charles Normand’s volume explores the imposing elegance of the rules of classical architecture. Normand’s engravings are light and delicate webs, pulled into order by proportion – with the swirl of a capital or the regal flourish of a curled acanthus. Illustrative lines work their way in and out of the milky white, pausing in each paper window to pronounce, multiplying before us the mathematical intricacies of the Doric or Corinthian. The text of Normand’s book – deepened in colour by use, the stains of studious wear – gently breathe the spirited ‘0’. 0 is the opening of any calculation, as well as the first number in the Fibonacci sequence; wide and triumphant, it is the symbol of the beginning, of both design and proportion.